And so I’m sailing through the sea
To an island where we’ll meet
You’ll hear the music fill the air
I’ll put a flower in your hair
Though the breezes, through the trees
Move so pretty you’re all I see
As the world keeps spinning round
You hold me right here right now
– Lucky, Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat

---

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Morgan Penthouse: Master Bedroom

 Jason watched as Elizabeth finished dressing and sat on the edge of the bed, sliding into a pair of boots. She barely even winced at the pressure when she leaned over to slide the zipper up, then tugged her jeans down.

“I’m fine, you know,” she said, sliding him an amused glance out of the corner of her eye. “Leo’s doing me a favor to squeeze me in today so I can get back faster. I could have gone back a week ago.”

“I know. And I know you miss work,” Jason said. “It’s just—”

“You like when everyone you love is where you can see them.” But she was smiling when she said it. She crossed the room, leaned up to brush her mouth against his. He caught her hips, holding her in place to deepen the embrace. When he pulled back, he cupped her face with one hand, the other resting at the curve of her waist.

“It should be safe enough to go back to the hospital,” he told her. “Spinelli said the firewall he installed is holding up, and he apparently fixed whatever was causing those misfires.”

“It’s such a relief to know the patients will be safe. I just—” Elizabeth sighed. “I just wish we knew who did this. If it was someone trying to use me against you or just some evil hacker who just likes chaos—”

Jason grimaced, looked down. “Spinelli said he’s not going to stop looking for hints in the code, but with nothing else happening—”

“And everything else going quiet, I know it’s a long shot.” She kissed him again, then went over to the top of his dresser where she was keeping her jewelry box temporarily. A few pieces of gold glinted when she lifted the top to remove the watch she’d stowed the day before and a necklace.

He moved behind her, offering to help with the clasp. It was such a small thing, he thought, to brush her hair to one side and fasten the necklace together. He kissed the side of her neck she’d left bared, and she laughed, leaning back against him. Moments like this had been so rare over the last year, in the few hours they’d managed to scrape together in hotels and the safe house. But during the last month, as she’d recovered, they’d become constant. Daily. But he hoped he never took them for granted.

“Before you go downstairs—” Jason said, catching her hand as she started for the door. He opened the top of the drawer, drew out a thick, cream envelope and handed it to her. Elizabeth furrowed her brow.

“You didn’t have to—” But she broke off, blinking at what she pulled out. “It’s in Italian, I don’t—” Elizabeth squinted, then looked at him. “Is this—is this property? There’s an address I think.”

“It’s a flat in Venice,” Jason told her. “I—I rented for the next year.”

“You—” Elizabeth pressed her lips together, then took a deep breath. “For a year?”

“I don’t know when we can go. How long things will be quiet, or when you’ll feel comfortable taking time from work again,” Jason said. “I know you’re worried about the hospital. And the boys are getting used to everything. We’ll be back in the house—but I didn’t forget about Italy.”

“I didn’t—I didn’t think you did.”

“So this is waiting. Whenever you want to go. Maybe we can go more than once. We could take the boys this summer or we can go somewhere else—” He broke off when Elizabeth came forward, wrapped her arms around his neck, letting the papers fall to the ground and kissed him hard. He buried his hands in her hair, losing himself in the way she felt against him, the taste, the knowledge that he didn’t have to let her go, that this was his normal—

“Do we have enough time for me to thank you properly?” Elizabeth murmured, her fingers sliding slowly down his collarbone, down his chest, towards the buckle of his jeans.

“Not unless you want to miss your doctor’s appointment,” Jason murmured against her mouth.

Elizabeth made a face then sighed, stepping back. “Okay, fine. But tonight, you’d better be home on time.”

“That’s not going to be a problem.”

Kelly’s: Courtyard

Maxie scrolled through the list on her notes app, pursing her lips. “I just know I’m missing something—oof!” She crashed into Spinelli’s back, then glared up at him. “Hey! What gives—”

Spinelli turned, put his hands on her shoulders to keep her from going around him. “The Jackal suddenly has a craving for Mexican—”

“It’s nine in the morning, Spinelli, you can have guacamole later—” Maxie arched her head, then narrowed her eyes. When she looked back at Spinelli, the blue had gone flinty. “Did you just not want me to see that son of a bitch and the trash he dragged through the door?”

“Maximista—” Spinelli winced when his girlfriend shoved him to one side, yanked open the door, and was over the threshold before he could recover his balance. With a reluctant sigh, he went after her.

Maxie had stopped in front of a table and planted both hands on her hips. “You got a lot of nerve coming here, don’t you know that?”

Nadine set the cup of coffee in her hand on the table, her lips thinning. She didn’t look up, but the man across from her was already pushing his chair back. “Johnny, don’t—don’t—”

But the Sceptic Son was not listening. He got to his feet. “No, I’m getting really tired of you going after me or Nadine every time you see us in public. What do you want me to do, hide in the apartment until you’ve decided I get to move on?” he demanded.

Though Johnny towered over her, Maxie only lifted her chin. “I think you should have waited until the ink was dry on Lulu’s transfer papers, you low-down lying cheating piece of scum, and you—you—” She jabbed a finger at Nadine. “Pretending to give a damn about Lu, checking on her, don’t think I don’t know what you were doing—”

“You only give a damn now because you feel guilty!” Johnny shot back, his face flushed. “You weren’t even friends!”

“We were going to be! We would have been, okay? You don’t know! You don’t know anything! I wanted to tell the truth and so did she, but you wouldn’t let us! And now look what happened!”

“Oh, you’ve got one hell of a way of rewriting history, you little twit—”

Spinelli winced as Maxie’s face flushed an even deeper shade of scarlet, then looked at Nadine sinking lower into her chair, her head in her hands. “Maximista, perhaps we should—”

“No! No! This is my town, okay? Mine! And Lu’s. We were here first. You don’t get to chase me out of this diner. Her family owns it, and you’re in here flaunting your cheap imitation whore—”

“You’d know all about cheap imitation, wouldn’t you? What shade of box dye is that on your head?”

The sound that emerged from Maxie’s mouth might have been meant to be a growl, but the pitch of her voice made it more like an angry squeak. She snatched a glass of orange juice from the table and dashed its contents in Johnny’s face. Before he could do anything but blink, she’d grabbed Nadine’s pancakes and launched them. Johnny dried to dodge it, pancakes going flying, but the plate hit him in the corner of the jaw.

“Hey, hey, hey—okay, okay—” Spinelli grabbed Maxie’s hands when she went for a plate of home fries in front of a stunned customer. “Okay, let’s go. We’re going. We’re going. Now.”

“No, no, I’m just getting started!” Maxie tried to kick out at Johnny even as Spinelli dragged her backwards towards the door. “Let me at him! Let me shove a hash brown down his throat so I can watch him choke—”

She was still making threats of breakfast food violence when Spinelli finally got her out the door and into the courtyard.

Johnny scowled, flicking bits of pancake and syrup from his long-sleeved shirt. He looked at Nadine. “You were right. We should have stayed in.”

Her head snapped up, her blue eyes no less furious than the woman who’d just been dragged out. She jerked her purse off the back of the chair, and headed for the door, yanking her coat from the rack on her way.

Johnny sighed, looked over at the shell-shocked waitress. “So, uh, I’ll cover everyone’s tab here, and uh, extra for the cleanup.”

Metro Court Hotel: Restaurant

 Bobbie pressed a finger to her temple, then sighed. “All right. All right, thank you, Penny. I’ll look into it. Thank you. I’d be lost without you.” She closed her phone just as Carly slid into the seat across from her. “Good morning. I’d almost given up hope.”

“Sorry.” Carly dropped a napkin over her lap. “I would have called but I left my phone off the charger last night, and didn’t realize until I was in the car, and it was dead. One of those mornings.” She nodded at the phone next to her mother’s plate. “Who were you talking to?”

“Penny. She’s been acting manager at Kelly’s for the last few months, but I need to find someone permanent. Apparently, Maxie started throwing breakfast food at Johnny Zacchara in the middle of the breakfast rush.” Bobbie made a face. “A beautiful girl, but she didn’t inherit a lick of common sense from either of her parents.”

“Considering what she pulled on Lucky two years ago,” Carly said, smiling up at the waitress who poured her coffee, “I’d think she had more Spencer in her than Felicia Jones.”

“I’d love to argue that point with you, but I simply can’t.” Bobbie tipped her head. “You’re not going to comment on Johnny Zacchara being pelted with sausages?”

Carly arched a brow, then folded her arms on the table. “Am I supposed to root for Maxie because Johnny’s the top suspect in what happened to Sonny? He has an alibi, Mama. He was with Nadine, proposing marriage. Ask anyone.”

“Carly.”

“Are you wearing a wire or something? I thought this was just breakfast, not an interrogation.” Carly picked up her coffee and sipped it. “Jason handled all of that, and if he’s satisfied, so am I. Aren’t you proud of me for not going off half-cocked and making a mess?”

“Proud? Worried, maybe. Carly—”

“Did Kelly’s survive the food fight or what? Are you going to have Maxie arrested?”

“No. No. Johnny paid for the whole thing and stayed to clean up. But since we’re on the subject of Johnny Zacchara—”

“Are we?”

“You were supposed to talk to Patrick yesterday about Sonny. I’m guessing from the lack of a phone call last night, the meeting didn’t go well.”

“It went…” Carly hesitated. “It went the way I thought it would. No change. Not in brain activity or the prognosis. I’ve called Silver Water.”

“You—” Bobbie blinked. “Already? What does Jason say?”

“Jason is living his life, enjoying his family just the way I promised him. He hasn’t been involved in any of it. And I’m not talking to him about it, either. Not tonight.”

“Well, no, of course not tonight, but—”

“Then why are we having this conversation?” Carly snapped, and Bobbie closed her mouth. Carly sighed, dragged her hands down her face. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I just—it doesn’t change anything. Talking about it. Going to see him. None of it. Sonny is gone. And talking to Jason about it—I don’t want to do it. Okay? Because that makes it all real and I don’t want to do that until I know Silver Water can take him. Jason’s been through too much this last year for me to pile more on his plate until I have to. Can that be enough? Can we please talk about something else?”

Crimson Pointe: Living Room

“I don’t like it.”

Claudia rolled her eyes, ignored her father, and turned the page in her fashion magazine. She heard the sound of the wheels on his chair as he drew closer to her but continued not to give him the satisfaction.

“Hey, Jezebel—”

“You know, Daddy, there are a lot of other wicked women you could go with. Delilah. Eve. I like Athaliah,” Claudia said, lowering the magazine in time to see her father’s bushy brows draw together.

“What are you babbling about?”

“Athaliah. Jezebel’s daughter.” She returned her attention to the magazine. “She was married to the King of Judah and murdered her grandchildren after his death to keep the throne. A woman who’d do anything to secure her power. Seems more accurate.”

“I don’t want to debate the damned Bible with you!”

“Then find a new insult.” She finally closed the magazine. “Other than me, what’s making you unhappy today?”

Anthony leaned back, contemplative — never a good sign, Claudia thought. “How’s your brother?”

“You know as well as I do. Probably better since you’re having them tailed. Don’t make that face, no one told me.” She shrugged. “That’s just standard operations.” She rose to her feet, crossed the room to the breakfast buffet. “Let me guess, Mary Sunshine goes to work and comes home, and Johnny doesn’t leave the apartment much.”

“Sometimes the girl goes jogging,” Anthony muttered. “But I didn’t ask what he’s doing. I asked—”

“Don’t tell me you’re concerned about John’s mental health.” Claudia popped a grape in her mouth. “Since his first memory is probably the bullet you put in his mother—”

“I don’t know why I bother with you,” Anthony growled. “He won’t return my calls. And for some damned reason, he’ll talk to you. So go up there and find out what the hell is going on.”

“You almost sound worried. Touching.” Claudia folded her arms. “Look if you’re worried the nurse will get cold feet and turn John in for the shooting, I think we’re in the clear. If that were going to happen, it would have been weeks ago. Sonny’s not waking up, so everyone is in the clear—”

“Every time we think we’ve got things under control with that boy, he screws it up. Do what I tell you.”

She considered refusing just for fun, but since she was a little worried herself — John had more of a moral compass than he should considering his family background, and, well, there were just some family secrets that needed to stay under wraps.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll give him a call. I bet he’s bored enough by now to have lunch or something this week.” She smirked. “And how desperate are you to be coming to me for help?”

“It’s time you earned your keep,” Anthony muttered. “Shut up and do what you’re told.”

General Hospital: Nurse’s Station

Patrick held out a hand to his secretary, his attention divided between the phone in the crook of his shoulder and the screen in front of him. “I heard you the first time, Archie, that’s not changing the fact that we’re short staffed and if we can’t even keep up with the turnover in the nursing staff—”

He felt the papers drop in his hand, and he curled his fist around them, giving his secretary a distracted nod and glanced down at the clutch of pink phone messages. “No, I don’t just need six new nursing positions, I need to find three replacements for the ones that just quit—don’t start—yeah, that’s what I thought.” He tossed the phone aside, and it nearly fell off the base.

“Someone’s in a bad mood,” Leo murmured as he came up behind Patrick, catching the phone before it clattered to the ground. “Bad day?”

“Bad month.”

“It’s November 1.”

“Two nurses quit,” Patrick retorted. “And we never found a replacement for the one who left two weeks ago. Please, please tell me that you cleared Elizabeth to come back. Or I am going to jump off the roof.”

“Relax.” Leo leaned back against the counter. “She’ll be ready to come back in a few days. And she does the work of two nurses, so you’re almost in the clear. Things are okay, Patrick. Not a single misfire in more than three weeks—”

“Oh, and that makes it all better? I’m glad that problem is fixed, but I’m still putting out a thousand fires in another department—” Patrick hesitated over one of the pink messages.

“More bad news?” Leo asked, craning to look over his shoulder. “The old man?”

Patrick crumbled the message in his hand. Another call from Noah Drake who’d returned to his position in Arizona. “He can keep calling. It’s not going to change the fact that I don’t have time for him.”

“You’re just not going to talk to your dad for the rest of your life? Come on, man. He’s got your liver rolling around in him—” Leo stopped when Matt stepped up to the counter. He closed his mouth.

Patrick flicked another message from Noah into the trash, ignoring Matt. They’d had their moment in the locker room a month earlier and had gone their separate ways. Elizabeth was right — not seeing the kid as an enemy was better, but that didn’t make them friends. Or brothers.

“You know better, Leo. The liver regenerates.” Patrick tapped the side of his abdomen. “All grown back like it never happened. I have enough to worry about without thinking about what a disappointment Noah Drake ended up being. Turns out I was right all those years. He’s not worth knowing. I have somewhere to be.”

And with that he dumped the rest of the messages in the trash and left the hub without looking back.

Harborview Towers: Hallway

“I can’t wait to get back to work,” Elizabeth told her grandmother as they approached the door. “I mean, I’m going to miss you being here, don’t get me wrong, but—”

“It’ll be good for all of us to get back to normal, but—” Audrey stopped Elizabeth before she could twist the doorknob. “I’m so grateful, darling, that I came to stay. That I took this opportunity to be with you and the boys. To get to know Jason.”

“And your verdict?” Elizabeth asked with a quirk of her brow.

Audrey’s lips twitched. “You know very well that I’ve been impressed. Not just with how he treats the boys, I never really had any worries on that end. But in how he treats you. Best of all, my darling, in how he looks at you when you don’t know it.”

Elizabeth’s breath caught. “What—what do you mean?”

“There is a great deal about Jason that I will never be able to wrap my mind around, or put a complete seal of approval on, but oh, he just looks at you as if you’re the center of his world. The sun rises and sets on you and those boys for him. I think I can understand why you’d take the rest of it.” Audrey squeezed Elizabeth’s hand. “I can go home, knowing for certain that you and my great-grandchildren are in good hands. With someone who finally understands how special all three of you are.”

“Gram—” Elizabeth swallowed hard. “I wasn’t expecting—that’s the really the best birthday present I could have gotten tonight.”

“Oh, well, why don’t we put that to the test?”

“What?” Elizabeth’s brow furrowed in confusion, but then her grandmother pushed the door open.

“Surprise!”  Noise spilled out from the living room, including a mixture of cheers, noisemakers, and a pop of confetti. Cameron raced across the room to his mother, Jake on his heels.

“What’s all this?” Elizabeth said, crouching down to give both her boys a hug. She looked around, unable to take it all in. Monica and Bobbie were by the fireplace, Carly and Patrick milling by the pool table. Jason coming up behind the boys to pick up Cameron so that Elizabeth could lift Jake, and both boys were being held.

“What is this—” Elizabeth looked at Jason with wide eyes.

“Happy birthday, Mommy!” Cameron declared, wrapping his arms around her neck. “You the prettiest! We got you cake!”

“I like cake,” Jake said, leaning his head against his father’s shoulder. “Frosting.”

“Happy birthday,” Jason said, kissing her cheek. “I told you I’d be home on time.”

“You did.” She grinned at him. “I guess our plans will have to wait.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

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